DIGITAL GROWTH PROGRAMME PROCUREMENT GUIDANCE NOTES The below information is for general guidance only and you are strongly advised to refer to the document ESIF-GN-1-001 (Version 5) (the ESIF Guidance ) and if necessary, obtain independent procurement advice. The procurement process, through direct award, quotations or tenders is commenced at your own risk and should not be reliant upon receipt of the grant. You must not enter into any financial or contractual arrangement with any supplier prior to grant award and most definitely not before the date that the Funding Agreement is signed by the Grant Managing Partner. To be clear, any expenditure prior to the date that the Funding Agreement is signed, dated and returned cannot be claimed. Grant funding is provided by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which is subject to the Public Procurement Regulations 2015. You are advised to refer to the ESIF Guidance to understand the extent of the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and, if necessary, obtain independent procurement advice (see page 7 and Chapters 6 and 7 in the ESIF Guidance). You are encouraged to first determine whether or not you are considered a contracting authority under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. Private sector organisations will usually be outside the scope of this definition. However, you should refer to paragraph 2.1.2 page 20 of the ESIF Guidance. The remainder of this document assumes that you are not a contracting authority and are thus required to comply with the National Rules, details of which are contained within Chapter 6, page 36 of the ESIF Guidance and highlighted below. The has several local authority partners, therefore we strongly recommend that a minimum of three written quotations for each item are secured and provided with your application. Although the National Rules below do not always require this, it is viewed as good practice that should be adopted to evidence that a single quotation has not been accepted and some element of procurement competition has been circumvented. This may, in the event of an ERDF audit, which could take place up to the end of December 2033, provide some safeguard to your procurement decision. Procurement Guidance v1 04/10/17 1 of 5
National Rules The National Rules are designed to achieve sound financial management of public funds and to open opportunities up to competition. To comply with the National Rules, you must meet the minimum requirements outlined as follows: Total Contract Value Supplies and Services Contracts Individual items worth up to 25,000 Supplies Contracts Only Minimum Procedure Direct Award This means that you are permitted to submit a single supplier quotation for each item you are procuring on supplier letterheads, dated within the last three months. However, you must demonstrate that your chosen supplier(s) offers value for money and that you procured them fairly. If you fail to do so this could be challenged by the Grants Panel. Although we strongly recommend that a minimum of three written quotations for each item is secured and provided. You are required to provide the following: Advertising Required None Individual items between 25,000 and 200,000 Or Multiple items with an aggregate value of between 25,000 and 200,000, purchased from a single supplier Specification given to a minimum of three suppliers (detailing either generally or specifically what items you wish to procure) Three written supplier quotations or prices on supplier letterheads, dated within the last three months and Detailed justification that a reasonable decision has been made for choosing your preferred supplier on the basis of the quotes / prices. For example, based upon expertise, track record and quality. None Procurement Guidance v1 04/10/17 2 of 5
The advert needs to incorporate or direct any interested party to the following information: Services Contracts Only Individual items between 25,000 and 200,000 Or Multiple items with an aggregated value of between 25,000 and 200,000, purchased from a single supplier Details of the opportunity Service specification including: o What service / service levels are required from all interested parties o Where the service is to be delivered and to who o Escalation process for service failures o Quality monitoring process o How the successful candidate will be chosen and o Deadline and details of how to apply. Advertise the opportunity on your website/or other appropriate websites for 10 days. Justification will also be required to demonstrate that the contract award is in line with the advert Where a contract is a mixture of activities (i.e. a mix of services and supplies), the dominant activity determines which National Rules procedure to follow. In situations where the process of advertising has produced no acceptable tenders and a direct award is being considered, the form at Annex 1 should be completed and submitted to your Grant Managing Partner. The following practices will not be acceptable under any circumstances: Direct awards to linked organisations i.e. organisations that you or a member of your senior management team have an active interest in. Non-compliance with the thresholds above including artificial splitting of contracts. The process followed by you must be recorded and the relevant documentation retained and made available as part of the project audit trail. A lack of an audit trail to demonstrate the process followed and decisions taken may also lead to a financial correction. You must retain these documents until the end of December 2033. Procurement Guidance v1 04/10/17 3 of 5
Grant recipient name Address Contact name Email Telephone number Project title Details of proposed contract Annex 1 SINGLE TENDER JUSTIFICATION FORM Proposed contract value (ex VAT) Proposed contractor (if known) Principle justification There is extreme urgency (which has occurred for reasons which were unforeseeable and are beyond the control of the contracting organisation). There is only one supplier capable of providing the relevant goods, works or services due to technical, artistic or copyright reasons. No organisations have responded to the advertisement. Please provide details as to why the approach is justified (response should be limited to one page plus an Annex referring to supporting documents) Please detail the selection methods applied to identify the proposed Contractor (Please limit your response to one A4 page where possible) Procurement Guidance v1 04/10/17 4 of 5
Declaration We confirm that we have carried out our own review in relation to the information contained within this Single Tender Action form and have not relied on any information or advice provided by the Grant Managing Partner in relation to the same. We confirm that the information supplied to the Grant Managing Partner in this Single Tender Action form is true and accurate in all respects and we confirm and undertake that if any of such information becomes untrue or inaccurate that we will notify the Grant Managing Partner immediately and resubmit any updated information as required. We confirm that we understand that this Single Tender Action form will be used by the Grant Managing Partner to monitor our compliance with the ESIF rules and the Funding Agreement obligations. We understand that the Grant Managing Partner s acceptance or otherwise of this Single Tender Action form is not to be regarded as confirmation that we have complied with our obligations under the ESIF Regulations and in providing such acceptance or otherwise we understand that this shall not constitute a waiver of, or prevent or restrict future exercise of, the Grant Managing Partner s right to clawback grant funding in accordance with the Funding Agreement or any other right or remedy. Please Note: A senior member of the organisation must sign below. Name: (block capitals) Signature: Date: Position in Organisation: Procurement Guidance v1 04/10/17 5 of 5